FTSE 100 at 18-month high after cliff deal, data

Mining and banking sectors begin the year with a bang in London

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The mining sector boosted U.K. stocks Wednesday, keying off data that showed China’s manufacturing sector continued to expand in December and as U.S. policy makers hammered out a last-minute deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

The FTSE 100 index
UKX, -1.72%
jumped 2.2% to close at 6,027.37, as the benchmark touched the 6,000 level for the first tine since early in July 2011.

Markets welcome fiscal-cliff deal

(3:11)

The Senate and the House of Representatives both approve a bipartisan deal to block most impending tax increases and postpone spending cuts. What’s the deal means for the U.S. deficit?

The positive trading mood also came as investors welcomed a U.S. budget deal after days of feverish negotiations about how to avert the fiscal cliff of spending cuts and tax hikes, which would have gone into effect at the start of the new year. See: Fiscal-cliff deal passes Congress

Among other notable gainers in London, shares of Weir Group PLC
WEIR, -0.64%
rose 4.8% after the engineering firm said it sold LGE Process to Babcock International Group PLC
BAB, +2.23%
for 23 million pounds ($37.5 million).

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